11.23.06

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

GREAT 1/2 marathon!

In the past, I've always had trouble sleeping the night before races. The anticipation and fear that I will over sleep get the best of me and keep me awake most of the night it seems. So, I rolled the dice and took a chance yesterday and got up EXTRA early (about 4:30). I had a lot to do anyhow so I got a jump on that and I thought that maybe it would help me sleep better. IT WORKED! I slept GREAT last night except for a couple of times when I woke up coughing -- not much I could do about that. I will add this to my normal race routine.

My best friend took me and my running partner to the race and dropped us off and then picked us up at the finish line. That took a lot of the pressure off of me -- I hate to get lost downtown! I was like totally relaxed for the race and it was GREAT!

I used a Jeff Galloway chart that tells me what to wear according to the temp and wore more than I normally would. That worked well too.

There were so many people running this race (I haven't heard an official number) that it was 45 seconds after the start before we even got to move and 2 minutes and 45 seconds before we got to even slightly pick up the pace to a very light jog. We were dodging people the whole way. At one point a man in front of me dropped his hat and STOPPED to bend down to get it. I ALMOST played an unintentional game of LEAP FROG!

My "unofficial" time ended up being 2:08. I haven't seen the chip time yet. I would assume it would be a little less, maybe even by a couple of minutes or so. I was hoping for 2 hours but all in all am VERY PLEASED with 2:08. My running partner finished ahead of me by a few minutes but still a little over 2 hours.

I wondered after the race, "Could I do this twice? double?" Marathon... YES, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can... Remember the little train :~)

It was a GREAT RACE. Probably won't run it next year. My running partner will more than likely be in KC. MAYBE, just MAYBE I can talk my best friend into running it with me. It's really a pretty easy run, minus that "Heartbreak Hill".

Will take tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday off and run 5 on Monday.